Monday, October 31, 2022

Nicolas Vleughels (1668-1737) - Studies and Paintings

Nicolas Vleughels
Head of a Woman
before 1737
pastel
Musée du Louvre

Nicolas Vleughels
Study for a Head of Minerva
before 1737
pastel
Musée du Louvre

Nicolas Vleughels
Alexander the Great bringing his mistress Campaspe
to be painted by Apelles

ca. 1715-25
oil on canvas
Fondation Bemberg, Toulouse

Nicolas Vleughels
Study of Head
ca. 1716
pastel
(study for painting Apelles painting Campaspe)
Musée du Louvre

Nicolas Vleughels
Study of Torso
ca. 1716
pastel
(study for painting Apelles painting Campaspe)
Musée du Louvre

Nicolas Vleughels
Study of Legs
ca. 1716
pastel
(study for painting Apelles painting Campaspe)
Musée du Louvre

Nicolas Vleughels
Apelles painting Campaspe
with Alexander the Great observing

1716
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre

Nicolas Vleughels
Study of Legs
ca. 1716
pastel
(study for lost painting The Road to Emmaus)
Musée du Louvre

Nicolas Vleughels
Study of Arm
ca. 1716
pastel
(study for painting Abduction of Helen)
Musée du Louvre

Nicolas Vleughels
Study of Foot
before 1737
pastel
Musée du Louvre

Nicolas Vleughels
The Queen of Sheba before Solomon
1728
oil on copper
Musée du Louvre

Nicolas Vleughels
Return of the Prodigal Son
1709
oil on canvas
private collection

Nicolas Vleughels
Oriana drawing the Sword
(scene from Amadis de Gaule)
before 1737
drawing
Musée du Louvre

attributed to Nicolas Vleughels
Study of Woman in Clouds
before 1737
pastel
Musée du Louvre

Nicolas Vleughels
Venus and the Three Graces tending Cupid
1725
oil on panel
private collection

Nicolas Vleughels
Telemachus on Calypso's Island
before 1737
oil on copper
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Nicolas Vleughels
Study of Wings
before 1737
oil on paper
Musée du Louvre

Nicolas Vleughels
Self Portrait
ca. 1714
pastel
Musée du Louvre

Edme Jeaurat after Nicolas Vleughels
Vulcan as Personification of Fire
1716
engraving
Wellcome Collection, London

"By 1720-1730, all French painters were going to Italy, either through the official academy system or by other means, as was the case for Hubert Robert and François Lemoyne (who got the opportunity to study in Bologna and Venice by winning the favor of a wealthy tax collector).  Successive directors of the Academy in Rome included Charles Errard, Nicolas Vleughels, also a member of the Academy of Saint Luke (who installed the Academy in the Mancini Palace in 1727), Jean-François de Troy (who brilliantly replaced Vleughels in 1738), and Charles Natoire (who, after having studied in Italy from 1723 to 1729, became director in 1751, and ultimately remained in Rome when he relinquished the post).  There was something remarkable in the current of contributions and acquisitions fueled by this French outpost."

– André Chastel, French Art: the Ancien Régime (1620-1775), translated by Deke Dusinberre (Flammarion, 1996) 

Sunday, October 30, 2022

François Lemoyne - Figure Studies for Paintings II

François Lemoyne
Figure Study for Baptism of Christ
(figure of Christ)
ca. 1717
drawing
(study for painting)
Musée du Louvre

François Lemoyne
Figure Study for Tancred surrendering Arms to Clorinda
(supplementary figure)
ca. 1722
drawing
(study for painting)
Musée du Louvre

François Lemoyne
Figure Study for The Transfiguration
(Angel)
ca. 1723
drawing
(study for painting)
Musée du Louvre

François Lemoyne
Figure Study for The Transfiguration
(Angel)
ca. 1723
drawing
(study for painting)
Musée du Louvre

François Lemoyne
Figure Studies for The Transfiguration
(Angels)
ca. 1723
drawing
(study for painting)
Musée du Louvre

François Lemoyne
Figure Study for The Transfiguration
(figure of Elijah)
ca. 1723
drawing
(study for painting)
Musée du Louvre

François Lemoyne
Figure Study for The Transfiguration
(figure of Moses)
ca. 1723
drawing
(study for painting)
Musée du Louvre

François Lemoyne
Figure Study for The Transfiguration
(figure of St James)
ca. 1723
drawing
(study for painting)
Musée du Louvre

François Lemoyne
Figure Study for The Transfiguration
(figure of St John the Evangelist)
ca. 1723
drawing
(study for painting)
Musée du Louvre

François Lemoyne
Studies for Louis XV giving Peace to Europe
(figure of Mercury)
ca. 1727
drawing
(study for painting)
Musée du Louvre

François Lemoyne
Studies for Louis XV giving Peace to Europe
(studies of hands)
ca. 1727
drawing
(study for painting)
Musée du Louvre

François Lemoyne
Figure and Drapery Study for The Assumption
(supplementary figure)
ca. 1731
drawing
(study for painting)
Musée du Louvre

François Lemoyne
Figure and Drapery Studies for The Assumption
(supplementary figures)
ca. 1731
drawing
(study for painting)
Musée du Louvre

François Lemoyne
Figure and Drapery Studies for
Healing of the Blind Man

(supplementary figures)
ca. 1735
drawing
(study for painting)
Musée du Louvre

François Lemoyne
Figure and Drapery Study for 
Healing of the Blind Man

(supplementary figure)
ca. 1735
drawing
(study for painting)
Musée du Louvre

Fragment

Sir, say no more.
Within me 't is as if
The green and climbing eyesight of a cat
Crawled near my mind's poor birds.

– Trumbull Stickney (ca. 1903) 

Saturday, October 29, 2022

François Lemoyne - Figure Studies for Paintings I

François Lemoyne
Figure Studies for Hercules and Cacus
(figures of Hercules and Cacus)
1717
drawing
(study for painting)
Musée du Louvre

François Lemoyne
Figure Study for Hercules and Cacus
(figure of Hercules)
1717
drawing
(study for painting)
Musée du Louvre

François Lemoyne
Figure Study for
Tancred surrendering Arms to Clorinda

(supplementary figure)
ca. 1722
drawing
(study for painting)
Musée du Louvre

François Lemoyne
Figure Study for Tancred surrendering Arms to Clorinda
(supplementary figure)
ca. 1722
drawing
(study for painting)
Musée du Louvre

François Lemoyne
Figure Study for Apollo and Daphne
(figure of Apollo)
ca. 1725
drawing
(study for painting)
Musée du Louvre

François Lemoyne
Figure Study for
The Continence of Scipio

(supplementary figure)
ca. 1727
drawing
(study for painting)
Musée du Louvre

François Lemoyne
Figure Study for
The Continence of Scipio

(supplementary figure)
ca. 1727
drawing
(study for painting)
Musée du Louvre

François Lemoyne
Figure Study for Vow of St Louis
(figure of St Louis)
ca. 1727
drawing
(study for painting)
Musée du Louvre

François Lemoyne
Figure Studies for Ulysses bending his Bow
(figures of Penelope's Suitors)
ca. 1729
drawing
(study for painting)
Musée du Louvre

François Lemoyne
Figure Study for The Assumption
(figure of Angel)
ca. 1731
drawing
(study for painting)
Musée du Louvre

François Lemoyne
Figure Study for The Assumption
(figure of St Sulpice)
ca. 1731
drawing
(study for painting)
Musée du Louvre

François Lemoyne
Figure Study for The Apotheosis of Hercules
(figure of Apollo)
ca. 1733-36
drawing
(study for painting)
Musée du Louvre

François Lemoyne
Figure Study for The Apotheosis of Hercules
(figure of Neptune)
ca. 1733-36
drawing
(study for painting)
Musée du Louvre

François Lemoyne
Figure Study for
Healing of the Blind Man

(figure of Blind Man)
ca. 1735
drawing
(study for painting)
Musée du Louvre

François Lemoyne
Figure Study for
Healing of the Blind Man

(figure of Christ)
ca. 1735
drawing
(study for painting)
Musée du Louvre

Blind Joy

Crude seeing's all our joy: could we discern
The cold dark infinite vast where atoms burn
– Lone suns – in flesh, our treasure and our play,
Who'd dare to breathe this fern-thick bird-rich day?

– John Frederick Nims (1968)

Friday, October 28, 2022

François Lemoyne - Chalk Studies of Drapery

François Lemoyne
Drapery Study for The Assumption
(supplementary figure)
ca. 1731
drawing
(study for painting)
Musée du Louvre

François Lemoyne
Drapery Study for The Assumption
(St. Sulpice)
ca. 1731
drawing
(study for painting)
Musée du Louvre

François Lemoyne
Drapery Study for The Assumption
(supplementary figures)
ca. 1731
drawing
(study for painting)
Musée du Louvre

François Lemoyne
Drapery Study for The Assumption
(Church Father)
ca. 1731
drawing
(study for painting)
Musée du Louvre

François Lemoyne
Drapery Study for The Apotheosis of Hercules
ca. 1733-36
drawing
(study for ceiling painting)
Musée du Louvre

"Despite winning the Prix de Rome in 1711, Lemoyne could not visit Italy until 1723 and then spent only a few months there.  . . .  In 1727 Lemoyne was forced to split first prize in the Duc d'Antin's famous competition to promote history painting with his rival Jean-François de Troy.  Probably in 1728, King Louis XV offered Lemoyne his most important commission: the ceiling of the Hercules Salon at Versailles.  Completed in 1736, the Apotheosis of Hercules contains 142 figures, brilliant coloring and, contemporaries believed, the qualities of an epic poem.  Louis XV immediately named Lemoyne premier peintre.  Soon after, broken by excessive work, court jealousies and intrigues, and his wife's death, Lemoyne went mad and silently stabbed himself to death."

– from curator's notes at the Getty Museum, Los Angeles

François Lemoyne
Drapery Study for Adoration of the Shepherds
(St. Joseph)
ca. 1721
drawing
(study for painting)
Musée du Louvre

François Lemoyne
Drapery Study for The Blinding of Elymas the Sorcerer
(supplementary figure)
ca. 1719
drawing
(study for painting)
Musée du Louvre

François Lemoyne
Drapery Study for Healing of the Blind Man
(Blind Man)
ca. 1735
drawing
(study for painting)
Musée du Louvre

François Lemoyne
Drapery Study for Healing of the Blind Man
(supplementary figure)
ca. 1735
drawing
(study for painting)
Musée du Louvre

François Lemoyne
Drapery Study for Hercules and Cacus
(supplementary figure)
1717
drawing
(study for painting)
Musée du Louvre

François Lemoyne
Drapery Study for St Basil before Modestus
(supplementary figure)
ca. 1720
drawing
(study for painting)
Musée du Louvre

François Lemoyne
Drapery Study for St Basil before Modestus
(supplementary figure)
ca. 1720
drawing
(study for painting)
Musée du Louvre

François Lemoyne
Drapery Study for The Transfiguration
(Angel)
ca. 1723
drawing
(study for painting)
Musée du Louvre

François Lemoyne
Drapery Study for The Vow of St Louis
(St Louis)
ca. 1727
drawing
(study for painting)
Musée du Louvre

François Lemoyne
Drapery Study for Louis XV giving Peace to Europe
(Figure of Contemplation)
before 1737
drawing
(print study for thesis frontispiece)
Musée du Louvre